Girl Puppet!

I wanted to make a girl puppet ... and came up with this! The eyes took about as long as everything else combined -- couldn't get them quite right.

Note that I gave her a version of my old hair. I miss my pink hair!

Justin, the Dragon

Meet Justin, the dragon puppet. He's made of dark green fleece I've had for probably 10 years, plus some yellow fleece I've had for nearly as long. His dragon-ness was inspired by the yellow fleece -- the scrap I had looked just like a dragon's spikes. I think he might need wings (small ones, though) since he's a dragon and all, but for now, he'll have to remain flightless. He's named Justin after a certain pop star whose hair flops in a very similar fashion ...

Smittens!

Inspired by an upcoming Valentine's-themed craft fair, I made these! Dubbed a "smitten" by the power of Facebook, it's a mitten with two cuffs, designed for holding hands. The prototype is pictured above; I've since tried a slightly different version that's a little less fiddly, but it has a seam, which I'm against. Next step is to write up the pattern and have someone other than me try to make one.

Can you tell those are hearts, in the band there? Aaaaaawwwwwww ...

Knitting During Meetings

There was a board meeting for the Un-Scripted Theater Company last night, and thanks to the miracle of modern technology, I was able to attend from the comfort of my dining room table. And while I Skyped, I finished a third swiffer-cover (for us this time) and unravelled the last of the Giant Blue Socks. No devil's playground in these hands!

Felted Slippers, Part Two

Despite my firm conviction that Felting. Does. Not. Work., I flung the red and black slippers into a washing machine filled with hot, soapy water, and approximately 30 minutes later, they actually looked like footwear (albeit something Mickey Mouse might wear). Imagine that! Just need to trim off the ends and Miss P can enjoy some toasty toes!

Here's the thing about knitting something and then felting it. It is very bad for people (like myself!) with control issues. When I knit something, I can see what it's going to look like as I go along. If it's crappy, I can rip it out and start again. Not so with felting. (Or rather, as my sister would point out, fulling.) I'm expected to knit an item that would look large on a sasquatch, then trust the washing machine to shrink it to the appropriate size and shape? And if it doesn't come out properly, there's no going back? Um, yikes! So don't look for too many fulled/felted projects from me this year, unless I get quite a bit braver!

Swiffer Cover!

Using a slight variation of the Zoom pattern I found from KiddoKnits and some blue-yellow-green cotton yarn, I made my second re-useable Swiffer cover today. The first one, back before Christmas, was for my sister (her 4-year-old enjoys Swiffer duty at their house); this one's for my mom. Also cast on one for myself, 'cause why not?

(Side note: There are a few Swiffer cover patterns out there. KnittyWhipped did a very scientific side-by-side comparison that I wish I could say led me to knit this one; in truth, it just looked easier.)

Blue Sock Remake, Part Two

Slow going. Another 3 hours or so unravelling this thing and I'm still not done with the first sock. Sigh.

However! The new pattern decision has been made. We're going with Diamond Waffle. A new cast-on and bind-off, and a cute new pattern. Plus, these were designed to be men's socks, so maybe they won't look so out of proportion at boy-feet size ...

The Great Sock Pattern Search

OK. Looking for an ambitious-but-not-suicidal sock pattern for the Re-Made Blue Socks. Knitty.com is my go-to pattern source, where I found:

Cathedral

Crosswaves

Diamond Waffle

Plaited Points

Thuja

Now to decide: which one will it be?

Blue Sock Remake, Part One

Our first winter in Maine, I knit Himself a par of wool socks. Heaven only knows what kind of insane Bigfoot pattern I was using, because despite checking the gauge (which I do now, religiously), they turned out huge and largely unwearable. So after 2 years in the back of a closet, I've taken them back, and I'm going to try again.

I'm a more adventurous sock-knitter now, so I'm going hunting for a slightly more ambitious pattern. The unravelling is a pain in the neck -- it took 2 episodes of Mad Men and three of The Office (Thank you, Netflix!) to get sock number one halfway dismantled. So it looks like this isn't going to be a quickie project, but that's OK. It's the journey, not the destination, right?

Felted Slippers, Part One

I have a pair of orange and purple felted slippers that my mother made -- from a pattern she assures me is easy. My friend Miss P wears them whenever she is visiting, and the last time she was here, she expressed a desire to have some of her own. "Aha!" I thought. "Christmas present!"


So I borrowed the pattern from my mother in September and even scored some yarn from her stash ... and then stuck it in my craft room for two months. Craft fairs and other Christmas duties intervened until, a week before Christmas, I had finished all my other tasks. Time to make the slippers! I found the pattern, but the yarn was nowhere to be found.

I searched everywhere, but no dice. Finally, on Christmas Eve, I gave up and bought new yarn -- Paton's Classic Wool -- at JoAnn. Perfect colors for Miss P, at least: black and red. I cast on and knit. They took MUCH longer than anticipated (not to mention some counting errors, oops) so when I finally saw Miss P, yesterday, I hadn't had time to felt them. So they came out of the box looking like this:

I should have put something in the picture for scale. Let's just say that, at the moment, these slippers would be better worn as a hat. Next step: felting!

2011: It's All About Textiles

Sewing. Knitting. Spinning. I spend a lot of my free time doing this stuff -- so why not make 2011 The Year of the Textile Craft? Needs a better name, I think, but it will do for now.

So far this year I've finished a reversible pink "twirly skirt" for my 4-year-old niece, but have no photos to post. So we'll start the blog off with a project from the past ...

This is a mohair blanket I wove on my rigid-heddle loom, as a Christmas gift for my mother -- maybe 2005? It was my first -- and only -- weaving project, though every time I look at it I want to make another one.